Over the past six years, John Spader said the multiple industries he works with rose and fell with the broader market cycles. He said today’s dealers are in a place he has never seen in his three-decade career.
Spader said industries including RV, marine and powersports show a drastic contrast between healthy dealerships (financially, strategically and culturally) and dealerships that would be lucky to last until next season.
“I think about a third of dealers are ready for anything that comes,” he said. “Whether it is a storm or great sailing. Then, you’ve got 30% to 40% of the dealers that, when you get into their numbers and their balance sheets, culture, strategies, they are unstable and at high risk with any kind of headwinds.”
Spader said he spoke to many dealers who said the smallest hiccup could upset their dealership. He said some dealers he is talking with probably will not be in business in the spring of 2026.
Spader told an RVDA Convention audience that dealers should focus on two things to ensure they are prepared for 2026.
The first is truly understanding their market share, including what is and is not selling. He said many dealers relied on past trends rather than identifying and adapting to current market trends.
The second is developing an effective middle management team in the dealership.
He said his work with 20 Groups and meetings with CEOs and executives found that missing middle managers are a major issue.
He broke a dealership down into three color-coded tiers.
“The blue is the executive level,” Spader said. “The primary jobs of the executive level are vision, culture, and strategy.”
The green tier represents middle management, including general managers and department managers. He said their primary focus should be on developing and managing people and processes.
The red tier is the “doers, including frontline workers such as salespeople, technicians, shop foremen and service writers.
He said, “It is the reds that get things done.”
Spader said most dealerships have strengths in the blue and red tiers, but not nearly enough focus on developing the green tier.
“Those in the blue tier tend to get frustrated with the green tier when things are not going well, even when the root cause may be that the blue tier has not developed an effective culture and strategy for the green tier to implement,” Spader said. “The poor greens are stuck in the middle without clear direction from blue, as well as having the reds coming at them in frustration.”
Spader said executives in the blue tier need to properly develop their middle management in the green tier. Then, he said executives have the system to be highly effective and bring out the best in the red tier.
Spader’s second focus area was the importance of market share and clearly defining a dealership’s position in the market.
He asked whether dealers were defining who they want to be in their market or letting their competitors define them. If dealers do not define themselves, he said competitors will.
“Once your competitors define you,” he said, “it is darned hard to get out of that.”
Spader said dealers should review their markets at least annually to identify short-term and longer-term trends.
From there, Spader said dealers can determine their target market share and corresponding inventory plan, then decide how to create advertising and marketing strategies.
“What you are going to find is most dealers’ market shares do not change a lot if they do not change their game plans,” Spader said. “A real, intentional plan can change that.”
Spader said dealers should remain hopeful going into 2026, but their hope should be grounded in reality.
“As small businesspeople, we have to have hope and be natural optimists, especially in the RV industry that goes up and down so frequently,” Spader said. “Realistic, fact-based hope is what I like.”
